MakeUseOf

You can watch more live sports for free than you think (legally)

Bryan M. Wolfe — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 23:00:20 GMT

Here is a fact cable companies would rather you not think about: a surprising number of live sports are still completely free to watch. Not a trial, not a temporary promo, and not a subscription you need to remember to cancel.

Samsung's Gallery OneDrive sync is disappearing in September, but I already found my replacement

Gregory Gibson — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 22:00:20 GMT

Samsung’s Gallery OneDrive integration was a feature that I forgot even existed because it just worked so well behind the scenes. My photos quietly synced both ways in the background and appeared in OneDrive like magic.

I skipped VLC and found an open-source player that chews through 4K

Jorge Aguilar — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 21:00:01 GMT

VLC and the stock Windows players were built for a different era, and they show that the moment you throw something genuinely heavy at them. Instead, there are plenty of alternatives that don't get enough attention. The most popular choices only sound good in theory, but you may like MPV more than VLC because it works better than you'd think.

I found one Linux app that replaced my entire toolkit — and now I can't imagine going back

Afam Onyimadu — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 20:00:20 GMT

I've spent a lot of time optimizing my Linux desktop environment, but somehow neglected the terminal — one part of Linux that hasn't evolved much in years. It wasn't until I started using Warp that I realized how much friction my command-line setup was causing.

I found gigabytes of invisible junk on my Android that the default manager never shows

Jorge Aguilar — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 19:31:21 GMT

Most Android users know when their storage is filling up. What you might not know is that the numbers your phone shows you are largely made up. The built-in storage manager groups everything into tidy categories that hide the underlying file system, and the default file manager won't show you certain files. Luckily, there is a tool made just for cleaning your Android phone.

Excel finally speaks Regex, and it cleans the data I used to fix by hand

Adaeze Uche — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 19:00:11 GMT

Imagine you need to extract a simple number from a complex string, such as a product code with region-specific abbreviations or a column of phone numbers stored in four different formats. To make matters worse, because the data came from an external source, it might also contain trailing spaces, inconsistent formatting, or other small errors.

I scanned my home network and found three devices I didn't recognize — one was a security nightmare

Jorge Aguilar — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 18:30:12 GMT

Most people trust their router's connected device list as a source of truth, and that's where the trouble starts. The list gives you cryptic hostnames, raw hardware addresses, and occasionally nothing at all, which makes it nearly impossible to know whether everything on your network is supposed to be there. Just like when you map your Wi-Fi, scanning your network can speed things up by showing what you find.

Every time I crawl back to Windows, EndeavourOS pulls me home to Linux

Rob LeFebvre — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 18:00:03 GMT

I dual-boot Windows and Linux (via EndeavourOS) on my gaming laptop. The setup made sense in theory: Windows for the edge cases, LInux for everything else. What I didn't expect is how rarely I'd actually boot into Windows, and how quickly I'd feel its weight every time I did.

I stopped uploading screenshots to random sites after self-hosting this

Tashreef Shareef — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 17:30:19 GMT

Between testing new tools and working on my personal projects, I take a lot of screenshots every day. And some of them inevitably include sensitive information that I would rather not upload to a third-party hosting service.

Your Android phone can already mirror to your TV for free — most people just don't know how

Brady Snyder — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 17:00:20 GMT

I live in a household split between the Apple and Google ecosystems, and that should make casting and screen mirroring difficult. The reality is much different, as AirPlay and Google Cast are robust and widely supported by streaming apps, streaming boxes, and TVs. Chances are, a streamer or TV you already have in your home supports AirPlay, Google Cast, or both. Android users can mirror their screen on a TV or display using only Google Cast. The feature is built right into the Android 16 operating system, and no third-party apps are required.